Cocktails: The Price We Pay
How much is too much?
Posted by: John Chandler on Aug 31, 2011 at 11:00AM
14 Comments
Along with the usual barrage of email requests I get about “the best happy hour,” there are two other topics that erupt with the regularity of Old Faithful. The first is about the presence of children at brew pubs. Me? I’m against it. If parents want to go out for a beer, hire a sitter. Or just leave ‘em in the car for several hours, like my Uncle Red did with me and my brothers. To his credit, he did crack a window and bring us the occasional bag of chips or a Dr. Pepper, so I can’t really complain. This is a subject I’ll no doubt return to at some point in time.
But today’s topic has to do with the price of a cocktail. If I recommend a place like Teardrop Lounge or Secret Society, typically someone will angrily let me know that these temples of mixology aren’t within their budget. Variations of “I’m not spending $10 for a @#$!%?* drink!” is the usual tenor of the response. And I can understand that. Hell, I’m on a budget too. I’ve embedded a video courtesy of liquor.com from San Francisco’s renowned Bourbon & Branch bar that sensibly addresses this topic.
On the other hand, if a place wants to charge me more than, say, $8 for a cocktail with standard, store-bought ingredients, I’m out of there. I know from my many conversations with waitstaff and bartenders, that a hefty percentage of restaurants make the profits they need to stay in business with $8-plus cocktails. The price point on food is just too high. And that’s fine—up to a point.
What do you think, drinking buddies? Should folks who want cheap drinks simply stay home with a bottle of Hood River vodka? Or are we merely hapless pawns of “Big Liquor?”
Behind the Drink: The $13 Cocktail from Liquor.com on Vimeo.
Honestly, $6 is my top limit. I don’t care what is crushed, squeezed, muddled or clarified into my drink…I just know decent cocktails can be had for $6 and under.
Way under.
Just a note – I hate $6 gin and tonics that have the dirty bathroom lime on them.
I also once ordered a $6 g&t and it had club soda (zero tonic) with a splash of sour mix. WTF??
However, I will pay decent amounts for St. Germaine and champagne.
Like many a happy person, I’ll pay a little extra for a well-made drink…when the budget allows. As in, right after payday. But, that same bar better have some low-brow options too. If it’s a week before payday, I’m looking for something that still tastes good (even if made with wells) but doesn’t break the bank. Variety is the spice of life, man.
There’s a difference between expensive and a rip-off. Portland has some of the cheapest drinks in the country if you know where to look. Take the money you saved and get something really amazing once in a while. Wine’s another story: $6 for a glass of crappy “house red”? That’s a rip-off.
You’re right Soakie (BTW: Love your work on “Jersey Shore”). Wine drinkers often get the shaft with sketchy wine. That’s why I miss Poor Richard’s $1 happy hour “house red”. True, it tasted like old Robitussin, but for a buck, what the heck?
$8.50 for a Tanqueray & tonic at the Driftwood Room the last—and I do mean last, as in final—time I bought one there is just too much. This isn’t San Francisco, and the Driftwood Room isn’t all that. And nearly as much at MVP (a dumpy sports bar) is ridiculous.
I’ll pay that much for something fancy/infused/muddled/etc. and well-made, if I’m in the mood.
The most i’ve dropped on a cocktail was 11 bucks… never again is all I am saying! Sure it tasted great and all, but the fresh squeezed/made puree just didn’t seem to be worth it. Of course, if we are talkin scotch or any other type of aged high-end sipper, sure I am willing to drop coin. But even so, when it comes to high dollar drinks… I would rather drink at home.
Some thoughts:
1.) When I first started reading this post, I thought, “hell, I’ve gone to Bourbon & Branch a couple of times and dropped some serious money on a drink”. Then I get down a little further and what do I see but that B&B video. Great minds, etc.
2.) No one spends serious money like that on a cocktail because they need to. They do it because they want to. More specifically, they do it because they know that the drink will be made with well-above-average ingredients by a well-above-average mixologist. To that end, I agree with Aitch that spending that kind of money on a simply-made drink with run-of-the-mill ingredients just seems like a rip-off.
3.) Once you buy any cocktail at a bar (or beer, or wine), you are spending more than if you’d just bought a bottle and stayed home. There are reasons we go to bars beyond just the booze, and we willingly pay for those things, if we want them badly enough.
I’m having a gin & tonic right now at home. Why would I go to a craft bar that specializes in hand-made cocktails & unusual ingredients and order something I can make myself? Craft bars want to make something you can’t or won’t make for yourself and they cater to people who like to experiment with and like the taste of alcohol. Would you go into a fancy restaurant & order a box of cereal? Ordering a gin & tonic or rum & coke is the same thing in a craft bar. And they’re not going to give you a discount for ordering something easy to make. I’ll have my gin & tonic at a regular place with a burger & tater tots. I’ll have my “Remember the Maine” at a craft bar where I can sit on the stool & watch the bartenders create magic.
just stay home. if you have to complain you shouldn’t be there.
I occasionally spend $9 on a cocktail at Whiskey Soda Lounge, and I think it’s worth it because it’s for something I wouldn’t (aka couldn’t) make at home. But if a well drink costs $6 or over at a bar….it better be strong.
@The Dude: Complaining is fun and good for your heart.
The Radio Room has an $11 Grey Goose Cosmo that tastes just like a $6 Cosmo and feels like a punch in the gut when you get the bill!
I often get burned paying six or more dollars for a glass of generic red wine when it’s the only thing I’m in the mood for and I’m hungry for some happy hour deals. But like some others commented, I’m paying for more than the cheap wine. I’m paying for the people-watching, the rest for my tired feet, and the “deal” I’m getting on food (not to mention the relieved stress of not having to make something and clean up afterwards at home on a busy, not-enough-hours weeknight.) But the markup on alcohol blows my mind – beer (not so much in Portland), wine, cocktails, whatever – and even though I know it’s how restaurants make their profit and stay in business, it still hurts every time I go out and try to enjoy myself. That said, I agree that it’s nice to mix it up. Find the cheap stuff or stay home when you have to or you’re really going to get off on that, and indulge or take it easy when you can and are willing to afford it.
I manage a bar in pdx and thought this might help to make sense of the pricing issue here. Oregon is a difficult place to run a profitable bar in that we are governed by a state liquor control agency. Through the OLCC liquor is more expensive here compared to open states like California. A bottle of Cointreau, for example, is 39.95 here and 34.68 in Chicago. Liquor brands can also give case discounts and free bottles as incentives to bars in open markets while we cannot accept such things here. It costs bars more money to do business here while the clientele demands more value for their dollar.
Keeping that in mind, bars must also follow certain costing models to keep the lights on and the doors open. Bars typically adhere to something around 18 to 25 percent liquor cost, so if 2 oz of Grey Goose (that’s how much goes in your cosmo) costs $2.80 a bar with a 20% margin will sell that for $14. At my bar we actually price our cocktails below margin because we’re so conscious of value perception. When a cocktail contains good booze it costs the bar and the consumer a bit more, but it’s hard to argue that better quality isn’t worth paying a little more for. Fortunately there are enough dives with cheap drinks if quality isn’t your thing. Check out this post from one of the finest barmen in the country, right here in Portland:
http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2011/how-to-price-a-cocktail-menu/